The Effects of Cocaine and Dangerous Loss of Appetite

A powerful drug that comes from the leaves of the coca bush in South America, cocaine is sold as a white powder that is most often snorted through the nostrils. It can also be dissolved in water and injected, or the powder chemically changed to create forms of cocaine that can be smoked. Whether snorted, smoked or injected, all forms of cocaine have the same eventual effects, including agitation, anxiety and decreased appetite.

How Do Effects of Cocaine Change Appetite

Weight loss in drug abusers can stem from a number of causes. A stimulant like cocaine can cause weight loss directly by dulling appetite and speeding metabolism. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, stimulant abusers often go on binges during which they avoid eating and sleeping for days at a time. The urge to find and use drugs, as well as the terrible expense of maintaining a drug habit, can cause users to severely neglect nutrition.

The side effects of cocaine can also include nausea and vomiting, because the drug causes damage to the lining of the stomach. This in turn causes the user to feel that the stomach is upset, thereby again suppressing the urge to eat. While users experience a “hunger” for cocaine, they lose their appetite for food. Naturally this can lead to weight loss and also to malnutrition; cocaine users will not even realize that they are starving themselves to death.

Why are the Effects of Cocaine Use on Appetite Dangerous?

Obviously, we all need food to stay alive. The harmful effects of cocaine take a terrible toll on human heath, both physical and mental. In an already weakened state caused by malnutrition, the body has an even more severely compromised chance of successful recovery. Seek expert professional help well before weight levels drop dangerously to the state of malnutrition or even starvation.

Being significantly underweight increases the risk for a variety of health problems; according to the National Institutes of Health, being underweight is linked with higher premature death rates. It is possible that excessive weight loss in drug users can result from diseases contracted through drug use, such as HIV or hepatitis. If you or someone you know experiences unexplained weight loss of more than 20 pounds, seek medical help as soon as possible to test for life-threatening diseases.

Find Help before Healthy Hunger is Destroyed

Short or long term, there are no effects of cocaine on the human body that are considered positive or beneficial. The only way to avoid excessive weight loss while abusing drugs is to abstain from using drugs altogether, but keep in mind that once addiction has set in, there is excellent, qualified help available to guide cocaine users back to a normal weight and healthy lifestyle.

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Help for the Cocaine Addict

While cocaine is a very strong stimulant drug and one of the hardest to come off of; it can be done and sobriety is achieved daily by thousands of cocaine addicts all over the world.

Going to rehab is a must, this is not a drug one can just stop taking and stay clean.

It can be heartbreaking to try and try and fail and fail. That is why finding a program that addresses the issues of cocaine addiction and keeps the addict long enough to get him stably on his feet, is so important.

We know programs that can do this - so call us now.

The ultimate options for Cocaine Addicts come down to:

1. Incarceration

2. Death

3. Sobriety

There is no nice way to say it. Take a stand for life and do something now.